The General Confusion About Star Ratings

[Huma0]

I've seen a lot of posts on this forum where hosts are upset about receiving a four star overall review when the guest has given them five stars in every category. Those reviews/ratings look something like this:

There is no explanation given in the feedback or review as to what they were unhappy with and they have marked each category with five stars, so what on earth was the problem?  The problem is that they have NOT given five stars in every category. When a guest reviews, it is totally optional to fill in the star categories. They can rate some, all or none of them. Many guests choose to rate none and just give an overall rating (as in the example above). When this happens, all the categories will show up as five stars under that review in your Progress tab, but they do not count as five star ratings, i.e. your percentages in each category will neither go up nor down.

How do I know this? Because I keep track of my overall and individual star ratings (you can see these percentages under each listing in your Progress tab), so I can see each time a guest reviews which categories, if any, they have rated. Here's an example.

This is not fail safe as how much the percentages go up or down with each rating depends on how many reviews you have for that listing. If you only have ten, each rating can be worth 10%, whereas if you have 100, it would only be worth 1%. If you have over 100 reviews, you might not always see a change in the stats with each guest that rates. Still, you can get an idea overall if guests are rating the individual categories or not.

Of course, I shouldn't need to keep a log of these percentages. The stars under each review should only show what the guest has actually given, not show five stars for a rating that doesn't even exist. It is obviously causing confusion amongst hosts and Airbnb needs to change this, but I thought I would shed some light on it, so that next time you see that four star rating with five stars in each category, it is not so confusing.

[Huma0]

Sorry, that last post was a bit ranty and I honestly try not to get wound up about the occasional fours star review anymore. If there is room for improvement, I try to improve. If the guest is complaining about something silly (being cold because they turned off the heating after I asked them NOT to fiddle with the heating controls) then I'm not going to stress about it, just try to reiterate more to the next guests to please NOT turn off their heaters!

The problem is this new rating language of 'better than expected' etc. It's really encouraging more of these nonsensical ratings.

While they are few and far between for me now so don't really affect my overall scores too much, I'm expecting that now to change because now apparently my listing has to be SOOOO much better than described to get a 5 star. Maybe I should take off the nice photos and put some really shockingly bad ones on instead and then talk down my place in the listings, highlighting all the 'cons' before the 'pros'. I'm sure that would boost my bookings no end...

[Petrina3]

so the wifi was not working - i gave them my phone number to ring if a problem - they didnt call. he is an orthopaedic surgeon - they paid $ 346 for for 2 nights in a studio by the beach with access to 3 pools  -1 heated) a gym, beachfront restaurant, tennis courts. a continental breakfast was provided and they gave 4 stars for value. WTF?

[Debbie803]

Hi, I'm especially interested in your comment about cleanliness. I have constantly been getting 5 stars for that since starting to host last year, and one recent family picked out 'sparkling clean' as one of their positives (as many others have done). However, it seems they then remarked that cleanliness needed attention in every room of the house and the 'entire place'!

I was so surprised that I messaged them through Airbnb the same day they left and asked if they could please tell me what issues they were referring to, so I could improve them for other guests. I haven't had a reply so far.

It's rather disheartening that they pick out 'sparkling clean', give me 5 stars for cleanliness and then tell Airbnb the entire house needs attention. 

[Huma0]

@Debbie803 

Sorry I didn't see your post until now as you didn't tag me.

I don't know how to answer your question really. The guest's feedback doesn't make much sense.

The cleanliness rating I mentioned above also didn't make any sense, nor did these guests' ratings in general.

They described the listing as "very detailed and accurate" and yet gave me 4 stars for accuracy because they said other guests might not read the listing. Eh??? The other reason given was the stairs, which they personally had no problem with, they said less able bodied people might struggle with. I have no idea what that has to do with accuracy given that the stairs are clearly mentioned (there is even a photo), which they acknowledged.

Their private feedback kind of read more like a review for future guests who have not read the listing, pointing out stuff (to me, given it was private feedback) that I kind of already know seeing as it's my home and I've already mentioned all of that stuff on the listing!

They said the listing was 'sparkling clean' but rated 4 for cleanliness. I have no idea why.

They rated me down on value too, but said that was because their friends had gotten a hotel with breakfast for the same price. No idea what hotel that was, because you can't even get a dorm bed in a hostel in high season for the price of my room.

[Helen427]

@Huma0@Lilly28@Fred13@Robin4@Ange2and @everyone_else

Why can't we hosts also have options available to rank our Guests?

Airbnb prides itself on not been discrimainatory so how about they take the lead?

[Huma0]

@Helen427

We CAN rate guests, but the rating system is much shorter and simplified. When you leave a review, you can give them stars out of 5 for cleanliness, communication and observance of house rules, as well as giving them a thumbs up or down.

The problem is that these ratings do not appear on the guest's profile as they do on our profiles and listings. You can only see the guest's star ratings if you use Instant Book and then only if the guest makes an instant booking, not if they send a request or enquiry.

You cannot see if they got a thumbs up or thumbs down. You used to be able see on the profile X number of hosts recommend this guest, which was number of thumbs up, so if a guest had more reviews than this number, it would be safe to assume someone had given them a thumbs down too. However, I noticed recently that seems to have disappeared.

Of course most guests have no idea they are getting star ratings so it won't affect their behaviour in your listing. Most (though not all) are aware that you can review them, so that's the only positive.

Airbnb have been talking about introducing a Superguest badge. I don't know if or when that will happen, but if it does, it would be interesting to see how the star ratings fit into the assessment.

[Helen427]

@Huma0, Thanks, yes I'm aware of that.

I was meaning in respect of our experience of Guest overall from a personality aspect as they do to us, e.g if they were as expected? better than expected? etc as appears to be what guest can rate us on.

[Fred13]

Good idea @Helen427 and why not; unfortunately, Airbnb uses two different standards, one for hosts (micro-rated) and one for guests (general reviewed). They appear to have the philosophy that hosts should be pressured to always do better, or else; guests are treated much more 'leniently' and handled with kid's gloves.

[Lilly28]

@Huma0

It  was an interesting reading! And no, I do not thing the review you mentioned as FAIR was really right. I had guests from Minesota - and ordered my bath-cabine to be instaled the previous day of their arrival, but the man could not come then, came when they were in - and for 3 hours my guests looked how he was working. They said - it was interesting, it showed them the way of life of local people, and they even said they were impressed to have such an experience!

Huma, when I mentioned that there must be an anchor for each listing - I must have add that this is not forever(as hotel stars), rather we are as boats - which can be moved to put our anchor from one port to the other - depending on our efforts - to make the property more comfortable and to take guest,s advice in consideration, to make their stay more pleasant, etc.

There is one more thing from my experience - I hardly ever met a guest interested to know how locals are living, not to mention to pay attention what the burden of the host is. There were just a few exeptions, most of them were hosts, and one rich young English man who admitted that privalely - but only after he left that he must have do it but he did not.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Huma0, @Fred13, @Lilly28, @Robin4, @Helen427, @Ange2, @Fred13,

I hope you are all well and welcome back Fred, I hope you had a nice break. 

Interesting topic here Huma,  I feel I have learnt a few things too from your Sherlock-esque look at your stats. It's amazing 🙂 

I wanted to ask you all about some of the points here regarding the new guest review flow question,  'Did the listing/experience match its description?'.

I've just filled out a review for an Experience I went on and this question popped up (number 3). I have noticed this observation several times in the CC now, that you believe these responses each breakdown into the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 star rating. However, as we still have the 'Overall star rating' / categories as part of the review flow,  I do believe this is a stand alone question rather than anything that links to your stars. 

Is there anything in particular I'm missing with this or something that leads you to thing this is the case?

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Fred13]

@Lizzie Including both for a time is important for it gives Airbnb time to analyze the correlation (or differences) between the 'Expectation' and the 'Overall Experience' rating.

[Huma0]

Hi @Lizzie thanks for joining the discussion.

So, what  you are saying is that the 'better than expected' etc. bit is separate from the star ratings? If so, are guests prompted to fill this in AFTER they have submitted all of their star ratings? They therefore have no impact on our star ratings and stats?

It would be really useful if you are able to clarify this.

Many thanks,

Huma

[Emilia42]

@Huma, In my experience as a guest (4 times in the last 8 months) and in all of my guests experience (who I have talked with), what you have mentioned above is the case. Guests are asked for the overall star rating as Questions #1 and asked about meeting expectations as questions #2. As far as I am concerned the review process has not changed.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42

Thank you. That is very useful to know! And I agree, it would be great to have a post from Airbnb that explains the guest review process and the different steps involved.

[Huma0]

and @Lizzie

It would be great if you could pass on the feedback to the team responsible that it would be VERY useful if they could please commuicate to hosts when they make these kinds of changes with an explantation of what they mean so we are not left confused and left feeling bruised!

Thank you!